Surgical gloves are made of very thin rubber and are sized to provide a tight fit forming a skin-like sheath on the hand of the wearer. The objective of surgical glove manufacturers is to provide a glove which will impart maximum tactile sensitivity to the wearer without imparing his facility of manipulation while at the same time protecting the patient from contamination or infection. Surgical gloves are made either of rubber cement, latex, or silicone rubbers.
Rubber cement gloves are made by dipping or otherwise depositing a suitable form a solution of pure gum of dry para, smoked sheet or pale crepe type. The dipping or other means of deposition being repeated a relatively large number of times to place a deposition on the form of sufficient thickness. The rubber cement solution is made by dissolving milled rubber in a petroleum distillate solvent. After each deposition, it is necessary to allow the solvent to evaporate prior to the next deposition. It is frequently necessary to deposit and evaporate the solvent a large number of times in order to build a glove of sufficient thickness. The glove is then cured by subjecting the coated form to the surrounding fumes of a curing agent such as sulfur monochloride and then neutralize the curing agent with ammonium. The sulfur monochloride curing process is not considered very satisfactory because of the difficulty of controlling the vapor concentration and therefore the difficulty of controlling the amount of cure. The use of sulfur monochloride was introduced because of the impracticability of incorporating curing agents directly into rubber cement.
Latex rubber gloves may be formed by dipping or otherwise depositing a dispersion of natural rubber latex on an appropriate form. The dispersion may also contain a vulcanizing agent such as sulfur along with accelerators and preservatives. After each deposition on the form, an acid coagulant is applied to the deposition until it reaches the required thickness. Following each treatment with the coagulant the deposit is washed to neutralize and remove excess coagulant. Both latex and rubber cement gloves may have an adverse reaction to the skin of the wearer. Approximately 2% of all surgeons and medical personnel who wear surgical gloves suffer from some type of dermatitis caused by an allergy or sensitivity to the rubbers. It appears that the rubber cement is somewhat less allergenic than latex. Although rubber cement gloves are less likely to cause an allergic reaction than latex gloves, the latex glove is physically stronger and stands up better to repeated applications of live steam necessary for sterilization.
Surgical gloves may also be made of silicone rubbers. These rubbers are used to form gloves by dipping and have the advantage that they cause a minimum of allergenic reaction when properly cured.
Because of their skin tight fit and the nature of the materials from which they are made, dry lubricants have been used to permit surgical gloves to be easily placed on the hands of the wearer and to prevent them from sticking together when packaged.
Originally, talcum powder or talc was used as a dry lubricant. Talc even in the form of the finest dusting powder consists of sharp needle-like particles interspersed with thin platelets having sharp pointed corners. Due to their physical as well as their chemical nature, talcs have been known to irritate skin when brought into contact with it and have even been known to irritate the comparatively tough skin of the human hand. Furthermore, despite the most elaborate precautions during surgical proceedings, talc is often introduced into the living body by medical personnel wearing surgical gloves which have been dusted with it. It is well known in medical science that talcs can adversely affect the living body. In an effort to overcome the disadvantages of talc and starch dusting powders, inventors have proposed the use of a finely divided polyglycolic acid powder as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,728,739 issued Apr. 24, 1973, or the use of a finely divided insoluble sodium metaphosphate as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,621,333 issued Dec. 16, 1952. These alternative powders are much more expensive than starch powders. It has also been suggested that the powder be placed on the glove during its manufacture so that the powder in effect becomes embedded in the surface of the glove thereby avoiding the dangers to the patient mentioned hereinbefore. Of course, this additional step is expensive and is not always successful. The applicants have discovered that a convoluted or textured surface would reduce blocking of the glove surfaces.
The patent to Barasch U.S. Pat. No. 3,761,965 issued Oct. 2, 1973, discloses a sanitary glove having a textured surface provided by a granular vinyl chloride polymer embedded in the surface of the film from which the glove is manufactured. This glove is suitable for donning without the use of a lubricant such as powder, however, this type of glove has the same problem as the talc dusted type and is not generally suitable for surgical procedures.
The patent to Belton, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 1,983,963, issued Dec. 11, 1934, discloses a method of providing a textured surface on a rubber glove which subjects the vulcanized surface of the glove to the action of a rubber solvent or swelling agent such as naphtha, benzol or gasoline either by immersion or by subjecting the surfaces to the fumes of the mentioned chemicals. Obviously, this approach will not be of any assistance to the allergenic wearer.